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Posted by: Stephen Winick
The following post was written by Jonathan Stone, Assistant Professor of Writing and Rhetoric at the University of Utah. I write on occasion of a recent publication that may be of interest to readers of Folklife Today. We are still in the middle of the Lomax Centennial year and the article “Listening to the Sonic …
Posted in: African Americans, Alan Lomax, John Lomax
Posted by: Megan Harris
Happy 15th birthday to the Veterans History Project! On October 27, 2000, the 106th Congress signed Public Law 106-380, an act “to direct the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress to establish a program to collect video and audio recordings of personal histories and testimonials of American war veterans, and for other purposes.” …
Posted in: AFC History, African Americans, Iraq War, Oral History, Veterans History Project, World War I, World War II
Posted by: Stephen Winick
During the centennial year of the great folklorist Alan Lomax (1915-2002), we at AFC have been celebrating his legacy in all kinds of ways: digitizing collections, sponsoring performances, encouraging publications, creating web content, designing exhibits…even writing blog posts! One of the things we most loved about Alan was his concern that the field recordings he …
Posted in: African Americans, Alan Lomax, Folk Music, Folklorists, Folksong, French American History, John Lomax
Posted by: Stephanie Hall
This is the second part of a two-part article on the folklore of trains. Part one, focusing on the development of railroads in the United States and related songs and lore can be found here. Part Two: Trains and American Culture The coming of the railroads made profound changes in life and culture in the …
Posted in: African Americans, Alan Lomax, Bluegrass, Charles Lafayette Todd, Folksong, George Korson, John Lomax, Legends, Robert Sonkin, Robert Winslow Gordon, Sam Eskin, Sidney Robertson Cowell
Posted by: Stephen Winick
The following is a guest blog post by Dom Flemons, a musician and singer who currently tours and records as “The American Songster.” Dom was one of the founders of the Carolina Chocolate Drops, with whom he has played at the Library of Congress’s Coolidge Auditorium, and with whom he won a GRAMMY Award. Dom …
Posted in: AFC History, African Americans, Alan Lomax, Civil Rights, Lead Belly (Huddie Ledbetter), Pete Seeger
Posted by: Stephanie Hall
When ethnographers collect poetry in the course of a fieldwork project, they are often looking for something in addition to a recitation of an entertaining poem. Poetry, like songs or stories, can tell us something about the culture in which it is found, the local ideas about what makes a good poem, information about languages …
Posted in: African Americans, Charles Lafayette Todd, Cowboys, Mary Hufford, Medieval Folklore, Poetry, Robert Sonkin, Sidney Robertson Cowell, Stetson Kennedy
Posted by: Stephen Winick
The following is a guest post by folklorist and blues scholar Barry Lee Pearson. It introduces the Sherman Holmes Project, which will play in the Library’s Homegrown Concert Series on Wednesday, April 15. More concert information is at this link! During the 1940s, job opportunities in Northern industrial centers attracted rural African Americans from throughout …
Posted in: AFC Events, African American History, African Americans, Folk Music, Homegrown Concert Series
Posted by: Stephen Winick
Last week, the Library announced this year’s inductees to the National Recording Registry. There, along with classics by The Doors, Radiohead, Steve Martin, and Joan Baez, was a fascinating AFC collection: The Benjamin Ives Gilman Collection Recorded at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition at Chicago. This collection of 101 wax cylinder recordings was created by …
Posted in: AFC History, African Americans, Alan Jabbour, Alan Lomax, Cultural Heritage, ethnomusicologists, Folk Music, Folklorists, Folksong, Narratives, Native American History, Oral History, Preservation
Posted by: Guha Shankar
Montgomery in March, 1965, Reconsidered: The Perspective from the Other Side of the Lens This week’s blog is a companion piece to my previous post on the fiftieth anniversary of the Voting Rights Campaign in Alabama. Both blogs have provided a great opportunity for the AFC to share examples of Glen Pearcy’s singular photo documentation from the front …
Posted in: 1965, African American History, African Americans, Civil Rights, Civil Rights History Project, Freedom Struggle, Photographs, Selma to Montgomery Voting Rights March, SNCC